INTERNET/DATA PROTECTION : MICROSOFT CUTS STORAGE OF IP ADDRESSES TO SIX MONTHS.

Microsoft is outdoing Google. The American information technology giant announced, at a press conference in Brussels on 19 January, that it plans to limit the storage of certain personal data on internet users to six months (compared with 18 months at present). The search engine firm Google agreed, in September 2008, to cut the storage period from 18 to nine months. The storage concerns IP addresses, the numbers that identify every computer that connects to the internet.

The new policy, which will be implemented in 12 to 18 months, is valid globally even though the decision is linked to the political context in Europe, explained Brendon Lynch, Microsoft's expert on privacy matters.It responds to an advisory opinion put out in April 2008 by the European Commission's Article 29 Working Party(1), which has pressured search engines to reduce to six months the storage of personal data before it is de-identified'. The group also stressed the importance of total and irreversible anonymity of stored data.

Microsoft explained that its method of de-identifying data will not change. The firm already uses a reliable method to make data anonymous by deleting the IP address and all other identifiers, such as cookies. Only the timing of this de-identification will change, from 18 months at present to six months.

"There are many good reasons to retain and review search data," according to Peter Cullen, Microsoft's chief privacy strategist. He explains in a statement on...